FDD | Jan 10, 2025
Latest Developments
- House Passes Sanctions on ICC: Rebuking the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the U.S. House of Representatives on January 9 passed a bill to sanction ICC officials and their collaborators. The “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act” was passed by a 243-140 vote, with all but one Republican and 45 Democrats voting in favor. “America is passing this law because a kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally, Israel,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL).
- Wide-Ranging Penalties Imposed: The House’s bill imposes sanctions against foreign persons, individuals, and entities that “engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies” that is not a party to the ICC’s Rome Statute, such as Israel. Penalties will include visa bans and the freezing of property assets. Unlike previous attempts last year, which the Democrat-controlled Senate blocked, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has promised to act quickly on the bill to have it ready for President-elect Donald Trump to sign when he assumes office on January 20.
- Biden Administration Lifted Previous Restrictions: In 2020, the court and its then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and other ICC staff were sanctioned by the Trump administration for their investigations into alleged war crimes by U.S. citizens in Afghanistan. The sanctions prevented them from traveling to the United States and froze their credit cards and bank accounts. These were lifted by the Biden administration in April 2021, which claimed they were “inappropriate and ineffective.”
FDD Expert Response
“We need to recognize the threat the ICC now poses to the U.S. military and our own political leaders. We cannot sit by and allow a kangaroo court to wage legal warfare against a democracy fighting for its survival against brutal terrorists. At a minimum, every ICC official involved should be subject to sanctions — but I would urge both Congress and the incoming Trump administration to go much further and impose sanctions directly on the ICC itself. That might be the only way to stop this lawfare.” — Richard Goldberg, Senior Advisor
“Congress is taking affirmative, bipartisan action to sanction the ICC. The ICC is failing to take on the world’s greatest crimes, including genocide in Sudan, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s murder of the civilian population of Syria, and China’s barbaric treatment of the Uyghur population. The ICC does not function as an international court to address the most pressing human rights issues of the day. It is a facilitation network that works to highlight false and misleading claims in order to undermine Israel. Congress is right to take action against the court that does not serve the interest of the United States and actively undermines our partners and allies fighting the terror entities that target the U.S. homeland.” —?Tyler Stapleton, Director of Congressional Relations
FDD Background and Analysis
“‘In These Exceptional Circumstances’: Poland Backtracks on Netanyahu Arrest Threats,” FDD Flash Brief
“‘Expect a Strong Response’: ICC Issues Arrest Warrants Against Israel’s Prime Minister and Former Defense Minister,” FDD Flash Brief
“Five Things to Know About the ICC’s Baseless Warrants Against Israeli Officials,” FDD Policy Alert
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.